Monday, 11 January 2016

Banana and Walnut Muffins

This week, though I was to make a Banana Loaf (as per The Book)..I decided to make muffins instead. Why did I do so?

First of all, I hadn't used my brand new muffin pan yet!! Secondly, I do not own a loaf tin yet. Yeah..so there it was.. Muffins were made!

Sadly, they didn't come out as well, so much so that they have been christened as Batti by my lovely Marwadi family!

Yet, I will share a few good pics that came out during its making and more importantly the learnings during the whole process.

The destiny of my muffin pan has been fulfilled!

Unsuspectingly snapchatting away!

Snowed them up with a little icing sugar!

Will try this recipe once again with a few changes. Till then, lets just see what we can learn from this:

1. To ensure that the cake/muffin/loaf comes out clean, be very careful as to how you prep your container.

Ensure there is no moisture in there. Wipe it clean and dry before you layer it with oil. Other wise, this is how your pan would look.

The reason is that the flour that you dust on the pan after this, will only stick to the greased areas.

This is how the dusted tin MUST look like

2. When you mix ground sugar into beaten eggs with an electronic whip, keep the whipping blade inside the wet mixture before you switch it on.
Also, always add the sugar in a stream, slowly at the side of the bowl while the eggs are being whipped; do not dump it in the center.
If you try to insert the whipping blades into the mix with the sugar just plonked on it, the sugar will create a mess as it flies out of the bowl.

There is measurably no solution to get the same amount of sugar back into the bowl. I have no picture of this,but I hope you get the point! SUGAR-EVERYWHERE-MOM-SCREAMING. Yep exactly!

3. Who knew, sifting the flour has a science behind it.
It helps the air to enter the flour mix and aids in making our cakes fluffy!! So when you sift it, keep the sifting rack at a good height from your bowl. Tap the rack with the other hand skillfully so as not to lose any flour. Use a bowl with a large base for this!

4. A few more pointers to keep in mind to bake like a pro!

Always smooth out the top of the batter once you have poured it into your dusted pan.

Give a good tap to the tin. It removes any superfluous air from the cake.

Don't overfill the pan. Give it space to rise or else it will overflow.

Let the cake rest in the oven for around 5 mins. Don't pounce straight away.